Forum:Ideas for New Categories
I'm starting this one to have a handy place to propose new categories. I think we kicked an idea around at one point that we should somehow categorize historical figures to show whether or not they actually appear in a given story vs. simply being referenced, especially posthumously referenced historical people. Certainly, having James II as a TWCE character is technically correct, but it might also give the impression that he somehow appears. TR (talk) 15:53, August 18, 2012 (UTC) :Makes sense. Off the top of my head, I would say four sub-cats: "POV", "Direct Appearance", "Contemporary Reference" and "Posthumous Reference". I would use that prioritization for a character that has multiple references in a story or series. For instance, in a long series like TL-191, Lincoln is a POV in HFR and then a Posthumous Reference for most of the rest of the books while FDR is first a Contemporary Reference and then a Direct Appearance. Given this, I would sub-cat Lincoln in "Historical POV" while FDR in "Historical Direct Appearance". :Of course, these two would appear in most if not all sub-cats due to their references in multiple stories. ML4E (talk) 16:14, August 18, 2012 (UTC) ::I like the idea, though as ML4E points out there'd be a lot of duplication. Unless we do "Direct Appearanc in TWTPE," "Direct Appearance in TL-191," "Direct Appearance in Worldwar," et cetera, and the same for the other three sub-cats as well. Turtle Fan (talk) 18:25, August 18, 2012 (UTC) :::Well, another idea that was kicked around was categorizing the various redirects to historical figures in the same way we do the minor characters. If we put that plan into action in conjunction with the new cats/sub-cats, we might eliminate some of the double-catting, and reduce category clutter. TR (talk) 04:32, August 19, 2012 (UTC) ::::I did a test run categorizing a redirect page for a historical character, selecting one of the most dramatically different ones we have. I'm not adding new categories yet, but using that example, and the above suggestions from both ML4E and TF, we'd call it "Historical Figures Directly Appearing in "Joe Steele"". ::::Does that model make sense? TR (talk) 18:25, August 19, 2012 (UTC) :Looks good. I take it that the actual character article remains in the parent "Historical Characters" with the redirects in the sub-cats. ::That would be my inclination. I see not value in having the historical figures cat list "Joseph Stalin" followed "Joseph Stalin (Worldwar)", etc. TR (talk) 00:15, August 21, 2012 (UTC) :I like that approach because it lets people see at a glance which historicals appear in Turtledove's work without having to search through the sub-cats. Two questions: 1) What of stories with only one or a few historicals? and 2) What of posthumous references? ML4E (talk) 23:39, August 20, 2012 (UTC) ::As to question one: well, I guess we could wind up with a couple of smallish subcats. That's one of those issues we'll want to has out before we start making any big moves. ::As to question two: I guess "Historical Figures Referenced Posthumously in X-Story"? Cumbersome name, I realize. TR (talk) 00:15, August 21, 2012 (UTC)